Daily Archives: June 23, 2017

I wanted someone who knew kind of what it looked like to be at the highest levels of college football. A lot of those things we needed to learn from Kirby. Because we had been operating under one way of operation for 15 years, so there was one perspective on how to approach things. So there was a different perspective coming in on “What do we need to do?” We listened when it made sense, and 99 percent of the time it made sense and we went ahead and helped make it all happen administratively. So the passion, the ability to recruit, the way he treats these student-athletes, the people he surrounds himself with and his attention to detail is outstanding. Those are the things that coming in I knew were important. If you have that solid foundation, then you can build upon that. I knew that the foundation had to be set. I think he did a wonderful job in executing that plan.

Even Bradley can’t pass up the obvious retort.

Still: 8-5.

8-5 and two great comeback wins and two tough last-minute losses. It’s such a game of inches, like everything else is. A yard here or there. What you can’t do is play the could’ve and should’ve game.

Nah. Too many other variables to worry about.

I always judge programs by a lot of measurables. Wins and losses are extremely important, but also: Does the coach lose the team? Is the team still hustling? Are they giving their best effort? The body language – all these things come into play.

Boy, we’ve come a long way from the days of Georgia being the lone SEC school refusing to give multi-year contracts to assistant coaches and Mark Richt distributing bonuses out of his own pocket.

McGee signed a two-year contract, which included a salary increase of $75,000, bringing his pay to $350,000 per year, according to information provided by UGA.

McGee becomes the sixth of Kirby Smart’s assistant coaches known to be on multi-year contracts. New defensive line coach Tray Scott was given a two-year deal at his $400,000 salary earlier this year. Outside linebackers coach Kevin Sherrer and receivers coach James Coley received two-year deals when they were hired last year and are entering the final year of their contracts.

Offensive line coach Sam Pittman, offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker all received three-year deals when they were hired last year.

McGee wasn’t the only coach who received a raise this offseason, although his was the largest. Pittman was bumped up by $10,000 to $660,000 per year; inside linebackers coach Glenn Schumann saw his salary increase by $25,000 to $275,000; and Tucker’s pay increased by $50,000 to $900,000.

All that after a mediocre 8-5 season. I guess it pays to be good at recruiting.

Saying that a new Texas law allowing child welfare providers to deny adoptions to parents based on “sincerely held religious beliefs” is discriminatory, California’s attorney general on Thursday banned state-funded travel to Texas.

… Alabama, Kentucky and South Dakota were also added to the list of states with California travel bans. It’s not immediately clear what the economic impact of the decision will have on Texas.

… One of the key consequences could involve higher education — and college sports in particular. Researchers and staff members from universities often travel to Texas for conferences. And California college sports teams play in Texas fairly regularly. Several major sports bowl games and tournaments are played here — including the men’s college basketball Final Four in San Antonio in 2018. The University of California, Los Angeles played a road football game at Texas A&M University last season. The University of California, Berkeley played at the University of Texas at Austin a year earlier.

The California law allows for exceptions for contracts that are already in place, and it’s unclear whether the state’s teams would be banned from playing in the Final Four. But the Los Angeles Times reported in February that UCLA has stopped scheduling games against teams in banned states.

North Carolina’s bathroom ban caught the NCAA’s attention, as we know. Texas dodged that particular bullet (at least for the moment). But here we are with a boycott on a new front. Will California’s move generate any traction with the NCAA regarding next year’s Final Four? Who knows? Although I expect Emmert will get questions about that now.

The article to which this is a part is a conceptual mess, but what does come through is how bad the SEC as a whole has been of late evaluating and developing quarterback talent. Check it out:

Between 2007 and 2016, current SEC schools signed 67 blue-chip quarterbacks — either 4- or 5-star prospects per the 247Composite rankings. Out of that group, only 32 stayed with their original school. Thirty-three transferred, while two signed to play baseball before arriving on campus.

From 2007 to 2014, 60 percent of the SEC’s blue-chip quarterback recruits transferred. The 2015 and 2016 seasons were not included in that statistic because several of those quarterbacks have yet to get on the field.

The article implies that a rash of transfers is what’s caused the recent decline at the position, but the transfers aren’t the cause. They’re the effect. Georgia didn’t fight to keep LeMay on the roster, because LeMay washed out at the position. That’s why all nine of those quarterbacks are gone. Of course, if you’re a head coach facing a hole at the position from that sort of departure, you’ve got little choice but to take a shot at asking a kid leaving another program to parachute in to provide depth, if nothing else. Necessity, mother, and all that.

In any event, it’s fair to say revolving doors aren’t a guarantee of great quarterback play. Just ask Florida. In fact,

Ultimately, failing to commit to a long-term project eventually catches up with teams. Only one transfer quarterback since 2004 led the conference in passer rating — some kid named Cameron Jerrell Newton at Auburn in 2010. Otherwise, every other passing leader has been a homegrown prospect.

Hmmm… maybe there’s something to Kirby trying to stockpile recruits at the position.

“I’m trying to get that game back again,” Georgia Southern athletics director Tom Kleinlein said on Thursday. “We sat down and talked about it a couple months later and thought it was a great experience. Obviously we bring a bunch of our fans there, and a lot of their fans and our fans are closely-tied fan bases. And with the whole deal with Erk (Russell) coming from here it’s a great, great game. We’d like to play again in the future. But I’ve not gotten a response to being able to play that game.”

Quote Of The Day

“He had some good pointers,” Smart said about Saban’s advice on dealing with the quarterback battle. “But I’ll keep that between he and I. I’m always looking for good advice especially dealing with the quarterback situation.” — Dawgs247, 5/16/18